Took this back in March, while visiting our daughter, who is teaching English in Japan for this past year. We took the opportunity to take a couple of weeks to travel around Japan. She is in Hirado, south of Nagasaki. I didn’t want to haul my DSLR, so I made do with the phone camera.
Beautiful. I hope to see it myself someday.
It's a beautiful city with wonderful food. I would strongly recommend against going there in the middle of the summer, however. Especially August-early September. You might think you've experienced hot and humid, but oh man.... It is on another level in Japan compared to anywhere in North America or Europe (and I've lived in Florida).
This picture was taken in spring, which is a lovely time of year to visit.
Yes, we chose Spring deliberately, for the weather. While it did rain a bit in Hirado (southern Japan), it was lovely everywhere else we visited. The timing for Kyoto was really good - just before peak cherry blossom blooms, by just a week or two. So while it was a little crowded, it was nothing like full bloom tourist crowds!
I highly recommend it. It is remarkably easier these days, with Google maps for transportation. Public transit is amazing there. I’m fortunate that since my mother is Japanese, language isn’t much of a barrier for me, but I saw tons of folks using Google translate just fine. And the dollar is strong against the yen right now, so it’s a great time to go there!